Have you ever thought you needed something
more, or new in your life? Have you pondered about a new hobby or activity
to start as you waited in traffic? As the minutes tick away while you
linger in line have you decided that an hour a week to do something fun
was totally feasible? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then
please read on! There’s a great place in your community where you can
meet people of all ages, have tons of fun, and help a child with reading,
would you like to know where? Well good news, this excitement is at a
local elementary school, free to join, works around your schedule, as
well as helps children to excel in a safe and fun environment. Sound too
good to be true? Well it isn’t, SMART (Start Making A Reader Today) is
a nonprofit organization that focuses on reading with children ages kindergarten
through third grade.

The youngsters that participate in this
program not only learn how to read more proficiently, they also become
better students, their attention span is longer, their ability to communicate
improves, and they get lots of exposure to books which they get to take
home and keep. At Juniper Elementary in Bend, Laci who loved SMART and
loved reading with her SMART volunteers, Oscar and Jeanie, every Tuesday
and Thursday for thirty minutes a day was one kindergartener who experienced
the magic of SMART. Laci enjoyed talking about the things she loves, princesses
and animals, and she loved all of the books to read in SMART. The books
that Laci’s readers shared with her made her happy, taught her new things,
took her to another world or helped her imagination soar to ever higher
heights. Laci’s teacher was also grateful for the time Laci spent in SMART.
“Laci has progressed leaps and bounds since she started the SMART program
this year,” said Mrs. White. “Laci has improved in all areas in literacy,
and of no surprise, she also LOVES to get her SMART books twice a month.”

So what can you do to be part of helping
a child like Laci improve her literacy skills, and gain a love of reading?
You can apply to become a volunteer reader for one hour once a week. You
have an opportunity to read one-on-one with children at an elementary
school in your community. To learn more visit www.getsmartoregon.org or
call 541-355-5600.

A
recent partnership between Deschutes Brewery, Volunteer Connect and this
year’s Leadership Bend class instilled a sense of pride and devotion to
volunteerism in a new group of people and created a new model for serving
the community in Central Oregon, all while revitalizing a horseback riding
trail for some special kids. Leadership Bend is a nine-month program put
on by the Bend Chamber of Commerce that teaches participants about different
aspects of their community, from history and natural resources to law
enforcement and government.

“To become an effective leader, you need
to have a good background on what drives the community,” said recent class
participant Ryan Correa. At the conclusion of the term, students must
collaborate on a class project. They decided to work with Volunteer Connect,
a Central Oregon organization that helps mobilize volunteers, to create
a template for a corporate volunteering program. “It’s a way for businesses
to create a culture within their company of service to the community and
teamwork for their employees,” Correa said of the benefits of corporate
volunteering. Class members approached Deschutes Brewery, known for its
commitment to serving the community, to become a “guinea pig” for the
program.

According to Deschutes Brewery Food and
Beverage Director Mike Cooper, who was also on the steering committee
for Volunteer Connect, the company jumped at the chance to find another
way to get involved. “One of our core values is sharing our success with
the community,” Cooper said, adding that the brewery’s annual Sagebrush
Classic has raised over $2 million for area charities. “Plus, we have
an annual budget of cash and in-kind donations.” After consulting with
Leadership Bend class members and Volunteer Connect to learn more about
the different sorts of opportunities available, brewery employees decided
they wanted to volunteer to help Healing Reins.

Healing Reins is a therapeutic riding
center where riders with special needs are connected with horses that
have special gifts. Its Sensory Trail, which has several stations that
stimulate the riders’ senses, needed a makeover, and volunteers painted,
added traction to the boardwalks on the trail, installed shelves and buckets
at the stations, and did some weeding and other minor repairs. “It went
great, we had a lot of fun,” Cooper said. “We all met here at the plant,
had breakfast, then went out there about 10. We just got to work, and
did a lot of weeding, painting and shoveling.” Now that the Leadership
Bend class has started a model for a corporate volunteering program, Volunteer
Connect is excited to take it to the next level. “Leadership Bend is doing
this wonderful job,” said Betsy Warriner, executive director of Volunteer
Connect.

“They took it on as their service project
to develop a corporate program. It was a wonderful way of getting us started.”
Volunteer Connect hopes to run with the program, with a goal of working
with at least 10 corporations in the next fiscal year, which began July
1. “That’s our goal, to help them engage their employees in volunteering
in the community,” Warriner said. Volunteer Connect would meet with corporations
of any size and help them to decide what volunteer opportunity best fits
their staff. After the event, the organization would also help the employees
to reflect on the work they’d done, to maximize the impact of their service
to the community. “The business community is a huge player in the growth
and the sustainability in the community,” explained Correa on the importance
of corporate volunteering. “It’s important to have that segment of the
community be aware and take part in giving back.” www.volunteerconnectnow.org

Stillwater Dwellings Creates
Modular Dream Homes

By VALERIE CLARK
DISCOVERY STAFF WRITER

To
look at Bob Duffy and Karen Wilke’s dream house in Redmond, you’d never
guess that it started out in a factory in
Boise, Idaho, making its way to Central Oregon in the form of six modules
trucking down the interstate.

It’s part of an emerging trend in high-end construction
that saves time, money and environmental impact, says Bart Mitchell with
Stillwater Dwellings. Mitchell spent several years in charge of design
and production with a Seattle company, building traditionally built homes
in densely populated urban areas before being contacted by his current
partners at Stillwater Dwellings, architects Matthew Stannard and Brad
Conway.

Central Oregon landowners Wilke and Duffy were
Stillwater Dwellings’ first clients. The Washington couple started visiting
Central Oregon in 2004, and quickly decided it was the perfect retirement
destination with its abundant outdoor activities combined with its proximity
to public services. They had a triple-wide trailer on their property in
the sagebrush just on the north side of Redmond, but were interested in
building something more permanent. They met Mitchell through a mutual
friend, and the idea for building a modular home on their land was born.
Mitchell said they were all on the same wavelength from the start as far
as the vision they had for the house.

“It
was a perfect match – we were right on the same level,” he said. “They
were accommodating to the things that we really wanted to have,” Wilke
said. After Duffy and Wilke had gone through Stillwater Dwellings’ ready-made
floorplans and selected the features they wanted for their dream house,
work began during the late spring of 2009. The concept of modular home
construction was appealing to the couple because they live in Seattle
for much of the year, and were looking to build their retirement home
with a minimum of time, effort and hassle, and with no surprise costs.

“The idea of modular construction was really attractive
for a variety of reasons,” Wilke said, listing the short project timeframe
and green building aspects as key factors. “All those things together
were pretty attractive.” “It’s very simple and predictable,” Mitchell
added. “We take a very practical approach. We take a lot of time planning,
starting with the budget.” That focused planning leads to a smooth building
process, Mitchell said. Clients can choose from a wide variety of ready-made
floor plans, ranging in size from 400 square feet to 2,900 square feet,
in any style from traditional to modern.

Duffy and Wilke opted for a contemporary feel with
bedrooms on the ground floor and an upstairs living space, offering incredible
views of the High Desert landscape. “We wanted something up high to maximize
the view,” Wilke said. Of course, clients are free to customize their
designs as they choose. Once a floor plan has been finalized, the builders
carefully calculate all the costs involved, from laying the foundation
to constructing, transporting and setting the modules. The modules are
built in a factory in Boise in a process that typically lasts about two
to four weeks with at least a week spent on quality control. “Building
something in a factory, there’s a lot more control,” Wilke said.

“There’s
regular inspections, and the materials are out of the weather.” Once the
modules were complete, it took about a day for them to travel to Central
Oregon.

“It’s fairly quick for a transport,” Mitchell said.
By the time the modules arrived, the foundation was ready, he said, another
time-saver. The entire construction process for a high-end home feasibly
could be condensed into just 2 months, he said. “The timeline between
when they sited the house and when we could actually move our stuff in
was pretty remarkable,” Wilke said.

The arrival of the modules, roughly 500 square
feet each, is quite a production, as a towering crane is brought in to
lift and mount them onto the frame of the house. Still, the entire process
took only about five and a half hours, Mitchell said. The next steps were
for all the plumbing and electrical lines to be hooked up, and the siding
to be put on. Detail work, quality control and landscaping all came next.
The process is more environmentally friendly than traditional construction.

Though Wilke admits that it was a “leap of faith”
for her and her husband to engage in a long-distance construction project,
she said Mitchell and the rest of the Stillwater team did a great job
of pulling everything together. Incredibly, the couple only met with the
design team twice during the entire process. “They did a really nice job
of siting the house and maximizing the use of the windows so we can capture
as much of the view as we can,” Wilke said.

“It’s a great-feeling space for us.” Stillwater
Dwellings has been busy recently, with several projects in the works.
One home will be installed soon in Portland, with another on the horizon
in Santa Barbara, California later this summer. A large residence and
guest house will be installed in Healdsburg, California later this year,
and Phase I of a guest house in Roslyn, Washington is planned for the
first of next year. In addition, the company is poised to release 10 new
pre-designed floor plans and a new list of sustainable upgrades for its
three style packages (Fundamental, Modern and Natural). www.stillwaterdwellings.com

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